A while back, the folks at Google were talking about their 'Page Layout Algorithm' which by and large discusses how users might not be all that keen on having ads above the fold;

"... we've heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it's difficult to find the actual content, they aren't happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don't have much content "above-the-fold" can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn't have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site's initial screen real estate to ads, that's not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward. "

Has anyone else noticed that there seems to be some changes to the replies one receives when filing a reconsideration request with Google? I have.

Reconsideration requests are all the rage with the fashionable SEOs since 2012. Everybody's doing it. We hear about them at every turn. But there really doesn't seem to be much out there on actual replies. I guess folks are shy huh? We hear a lot about the context of the initial WMT messages, but very little about actual replies after the recon is filed. Today we're going look at some we collected to get a sense of what's happening.

What exactly is the function of a search engine? In simplest terms it acquires, stores and returns information (from the web). Ok, simple enough. But we're talking about people here, people seeking information. How they interact with the search engine is often a huge problem. What is the user intent? A good way of starting to pick apart that puzzle is by classification of query types. And that's what we're going to be looking at today.

To understand what a user truly wants when searching for something you'd need to ask each user what it is they are after. While that works for the offline mom and pop store, it isn't at all feasible for a search engine. Thus an automated approach needs to be taken. What's more limiting, is that they have to infer intent from very few words and little in the way of (explicit) interaction.

How to measure SEO success

Recently we learned that most SEOs still consider that rankings are a performance indicator, just less of a value than in the past. Or at least according to a recent poll we held. This all begged the question, what ARE the metrics of measuring SEO success?

Well, in short, there is no cookie cutter approach that is going to work in all situations. What follows are some notes that we (Dojo warriors) put together over some forum threads and chat sessions. And the question was….

What benchmarks and key performance indicators are worth watching?

As we made our way through the various potential benchmarks and KPI metrics, it became clear; all is not at it first would seem. Right away you should understand that each website, each business model and market creates new challenges. This is where the art of SEO comes into play. What is a key metric in one situation may be of secondary value on another.

If there's one thing I hate it's having to do forensic and clean up SEO work. Sure, I like solving mysteries and that's what makes it interesting. But all too often I can't help but think about the price-tag. Sometimes it's a larger corp where the penalty or dampener won't hurt them all that much. Other times it's smaller businesses that can be crippled. Or heaven forbid, blasted beyond the ability to recover. At the end of the day I can't help but think somebody is losing a job, or worse.

Now, it would be great to sit here and tell you that it's totally Google's fault. That they should simply be devaluing all the crap links until we get the message. That would solve the problem right? Not so fast.

Ok folks, seems that we can finally get access to the new Twitter profile designs... YAY! I was kinda waiting becausse I was about to change our various profiles a few weeks back, but heard about the coming changes, thus waited.

Just a short heads up for those that missed it over the holiday weekend; PostJoint (another popular guest blogging 'network') was penalized by Google on Friday. Not to act like a smug search geek or anything, but I did kinda mention this might happpen in a post I wrote here at the time.

Hey gang, I just wanted to stop a moment and put some perspective on the recent guest blogging mass panic (aka the MyBlogGuest affair). For those not familiar, I do a lot of forensic SEO consulting, helping people that have gotten manual and algorithmic penalties from Google. That means I not only have a good set of sources out there, but am a good barometer of the state of them.

For those of us doing regular Hangouts it can be tough getting questions from the viewers. We use a combination of comments on the event page, on the YouTube page as well as more traditional hashtags on Twitter and elsewhere.

Ok, just a quick one here as one of my fav grumpy ol search geeks and I were hanging with some folks today talking about all things Hangouts on Air. Maybe due to partial (?) insanity or just the fact I seemingly express myself in writing a lot, It seemed easiest just to quickly lay it out for them here in a post.

Nope, this ain't gonna be no definitive guide folks... just a quick alk-through. If you're not sure on something, feel free to hit me in the comments or wherever U find me...

Once upon a time, way back in 1998, I started a web design and development company with my better half. After a few years I learned of this magical thing called search engine optimization and it wasn't long before it became my passion and obsession in the world.

Well, well. Its been quite some time since I went on a new rant, (spelled= whining). Truly a time of growth, learning and experience. To put it politely. At least to this point I can attest that business is a demanding mistress. Requires attention, and plenty of it.

So where is this taking us? Well, a topic I rarely broach with clients because the specter of the mere mention of its potential for havoc. Yes my friends, thats right. Failure. The money sucking, ego bruising womb of if only.